subject: Are You Ready for the Changes? [print this page] Are You Ready for the Changes? Are You Ready for the Changes?
Are you ready to face the modifications in the health care system that the new law brings for you and your family? One of the most conspicuous changes you will notice concerns the children. The new law states that children under the age 26 can now remain their parents' health care coverage.
Currently, children are removed from their parent's health insurance policy when they reach the age of nineteen years. But dependents who are full-time college students can still be under their parent's coverage. But of course they can only stay until their 21st birthday or until they graduate from college.
The way the new health insurance policy is written it does not discriminate against any child for any reason. But what about those children who are no longer dependents, who moved out, relocated or got married before reaching twenty six? What happens with the health insurance to those children who do marry and begin a family of their own, all before becoming twenty-six years old?
Does this mean that parents are required by law to keep their children under their coverage without taking into consideration their circumstance. Another interesting factor of the new health care reform is the pay or play mandate. This provision in the law will be imposed on small and big business owners.
This is a mandated guarantee for all employers to provide basic low cost health insurance coverage to all employees. Employers who try to go around the new mandate will be penalized. There will also be a change in your W-2. It will be changed to show the monetary value of your health insurance from your employer.
This will not cost you anything for the time being, but within a few years, you will be expected to add the cost of your employer health insurance policy to your gross income when you file your Federal Form 1040. Yes, what this means is that you will eventually be expected to pay the tax for the affordable health insurance policy your employer is extending to you.
If you are one of many who are mandated to have a portion of your salary deducted for health care payments you may be scratching your head. Will the Internal Revenue Service allow you, the employee, to deduct the amount that was confiscated from your salary during the year towards your employer sponsored policy?
